Congress accuses Maneka Gandhi of trying to 'polarise' society

New Delhi: The Congress today accused Union Minister Maneka Gandhi of trying to “polarise” society by her comments that money from illegal animal slaughter was funding terror even as it claimed that meat exports from Gujarat had more than doubled when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister there. Talking to reporters here, AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said, “I do not understand why Maneka Gandhi has made this comment. She is part of the Union Cabinet. [caption id=“attachment_1713805” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maneka Gandhi. AFP[/caption] “If there is terror funding from illegal animal slaughter, the government should take action. She should not try to polarise the atmosphere in the country.” Ahmed added that meat exports from Gujarat had increased from 10,000 metric tones to 22,000 metric tones during the chief ministership of Modi. Ahmed said even though Maneka, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has claimed that illegal meat business was funding terror, the NDA government had in the Union Budget this year slashed the taxes on meat-cutting equipment to 6 percent from 10 percent. Maneka had expressed concern about India being one of the world’s largest beef exporters and claimed that money from illegal animal slaughter was used for perpetrating acts of terrorism. “We are the largest beef exporters in the world and also killing them for leather production. We are actually killing more animals than China, it is appalling,” Maneka had said during a valedictory lecture at an ‘India for Animals’ conference in Jaipur yesterday. Quoting a report submitted four years back with Uttar Pradesh police, she claimed that the money earned through illegal animal slaughter was going into terrorism. PTI